Jen Pack – I am a cube!, 2012 – 58 ½” x 58 ½” x 3 1/2″ – chiffon/thread/wood
JEN PACK: UnQuiet Chroma
November 3 – December 15, 2012
PRESS RELEASE : For Immediate Release
Taylor De Cordoba is pleased to present UnQuiet Chroma, a solo exhibition of new works by Colorado- based artist Jen Pack. The exhibition will run from November 3 – December 15, 2012 with an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, November 3rd from 6 – 8PM.
UnQuiet Chroma is a reference to the artist’s unique perception of color. From a young age, Pack sensed she could feel or hear colors, an extra sense beyond the visual. This synesthesia, or union of senses, is undoubtedly a primary motivator for the artist and explains her intense focus on color in her abstract textile collages.
The finished work is the result of dualities in process, materials and perception. It begins with
disassembly and reassembly. The artist starts by machine stitching together strips of vividly-hued chiffon, moshi fabric and cotton. This is a quiet meditative exercise, a process familiar and comfortable for the artist, who grew up seeing her mother and sisters sewing in the home. With so many pieces of varying thicknesses and elasticities sewn together, the result is an unruly assemblage of texture.
Next the artist begins to stretch the fabric onto a wooden frame, a process of intense physicality, yielding sweat, sore thumbs and shoulders for the artist, and sometimes rips and tears for the fabric collage. The stretching begins to tame and smooth out the fabric. Unexpected variations in how sections respond to the force of stretching can create the most interesting parts of the work. Often the piece will require multiple stretchings, until the surface is smooth and the pattern emerges.
The finished work has the appearance of digital pixelation, belying the rigorous and tactile hand-crafted quality of the work. There is a tension as the process emerges as “too clean” and the hand of the artist is superseded by precision. For Pack, it is on that edge where the work “sings”.
Jen Pack lives and works in Durango, Colorado. She received her BFA from Art Center College of
Design in Pasadena, CA in 1997 and her MLIS from San Jose State University in 2008. Reviews of her
work have appeared in New American Paintings, ArtWeek, Art LTD and The Los Angeles Times among
others.
Taylor De Cordoba is located at 2660 S. La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036. 310.559.9156
Frohawk Two Feathers
All Gold Everything. An Elegy
September 8 – October 27, 2012
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 8, 6-8PM
Taylor De Cordoba is pleased to present All Gold Everything. An Elegy, a new series of paintings on paper by Los Angeles artist, Frohawk Two Feathers. The exhibition will run from September 8 – October 27, 2012 with an opening reception on Saturday, September 8th from 6 – 8PM.
All gold. All gold anything. (x4) I want. I want everything.
All gold. All gold anything. (x2) All gold. All gold everything.
So begins Soulja Boy and Young L’s 2011 hip-hop hit “All Gold Everything.” And so ends the final chapter of Frohawk’s trilogy detailing the battles for and the eventual conquest of Hispaniola. Beginning in LA in 2011 and looping across the country to NY, Denver, and back to LA again, the story follows Andre Lafayette (a character loosely based on Toussaint L’Ouverture and Jean Jacques Dessalines) and his confederates as they eliminate (and co-opt) their former colonial masters, the Company Crocodile, and anyone who would stand in their way.
In his typical complex fashion, Frohawk weaves layered and at times clashing stories of falsified, glorified, and rectified histories that draw upon various traditions and religions, forming connections across time and geographical space.
Although still painted in his recognizable and signature style, the works in All Gold Everything. An Elegy highlight a brighter, more vivid, and tropical color palette of vibrant blues, yellows and lush greens. Stylistically, Frohawk creates his own iconographic language, mixing Egyptian, Carib/Arawak, African, Pre-Columbian, and Abrahamic symbolism. This convergence of both domestic and imported religions and cultural traditions results in a syncretism typical of Frohawk’s graphic interwoven tales.
Works include “Let Me Upgrade Ya,” and “Most Young Kings (The Death of Andre I)” demonstrating the artist’s continuous vocal narrative and visual mix of all things current and past.
Frohawk Two Feathers has exhibited internationally with shows in Miami, Berlin, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. and Cape Town. His work is currently on view at the MCA Denver for his solo exhibition We Buy Gold, We Buy Everything, We Sell Souls. The artist has been featured in myriad publications including Art in America, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Flaunt, New American Paintings and The Huffington Post, among others. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
July 14 – August 18, 2012
Taylor De Cordoba is pleased to present Summer Sun, a group exhibition curated by LA-based artist Hadley Holliday including works by Pamela Jorden, Emily Newman, John Pearson and Tyler Vlahovich and Hadley Holliday. The exhibition will run from July 14 – August 18, 2012 with an opening reception on Saturday, July 14th from 6 – 8PM.
In Los Angeles the sun is our constant companion. In summer it screams down from indigo skies commanding us Outside! Rejoice! Recent events have made angelenos more aware than ever of the sun’s presence. In May 2012, the strange twilight of an eclipse cast a lonely shadow over the city. A few weeks later a “little black spot on the sun” reminded us of the sun’s massive girth as Venus, a planet similar in size to the earth, appeared as a tiny speck traversing the sun’s surface.With the passing of the solstice, the days begin to shorten and yet in LA the temperature continues to rise. Contrast increases and shadows darken against the white light of the sun. Mirages transpose images of the sky onto the earth. Venturing into the cool of the gallery, these featured artists meld mystery, beauty, joy and fear into images of our quotidian experience sparkling in the summer sun.
Hadley Holliday’s abstractions flood pigment against a geometric framework to create fluctuating radiant spaces. Pamela Jorden’s paintings contrast soft and hard, fluid and solid with a jubilant interaction of shape and pattern. Emily Newman’s videos explore imagination, legend and utopian aspirations in everyday life. John Pearson’s cyanotypes and videos are meditations on light and shadow, the process a direct translation of sunlight into image. Tyler Vlahovich’s high contrast paintings and idiosyncratic sculptures point to the ritual roots of mark-making.
Taylor De Cordoba is located at 2660 S La Cienega Blvd in Los Angeles, CA and is open from Tuesday – Saturday,11am-5pm. For additional press information, contact Heather Taylor at heather@taylordecordoba.com or (310)559-9156.
April 14 – May 19, 2012
Taylor De Cordoba is proud to present Everywhere Close To Me, Charlene Liu’s third exhibition at Taylor De Cordoba. The exhibition will run from April 14 – May 19, 2012 with an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, April 14th from 6 – 8PM.
In her new body of works on paper and panel, Liu manipulates the medium of paper itself to create a series of beautiful yet unsettling abstractions. Along with acrylic airbrush, handmade paper is Liu’s material of choice and she uses delicately pigmented papers to build her collaged works. Armed with an overtly feminine palette of pinks, peaches, mints and violets, the work oscillates between extreme beauty and the saccharin. Through a process of forming paper pulp into shapes and painting with pigmented pulp, Liu cultivates chance and embraces a stylistic looseness that playfully mines painterly traditions.
Drawing from the everyday of her domestic interior and backyard landscape, as well as, chinoiserie and decorative art objects, Liu repeatedly recasts and collides motifs until their specificity collapses and a new world emerges. Clustered plum blossoms lie tangled in a chain link fence as loose abstract marks float through a celestial backdrop. Swooping and drifting the imagery can’t be contained, pushing through entangling lines and the confines of the rectangle. In the larger works, she subverts by piling up delicate motifs and details until they become dominating, even grotesque.
The combined elements create a pictorial space confounding ideas of ornamentation and desire, high and low forms, figure and ground. Repeatedly, Liu walks the line between celebration and critique, as she moves gracefully from imagery to abstraction. The result is a stunning series of imagined landscapes.
Liu lives and works in Eugene, OR where she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon. Born in Taiwan in 1975, Liu received an MFA from Columbia University in 2003 and a BA from Brandeis University in 1997. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with recent solo exhibitions at Taylor De Cordoba Gallery (Los Angeles), Elizabeth Leach Gallery (Portland, OR), and Shaheen Modern & Contemporary (Cleveland, OH). Her work has been reviewed in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and Flash Art International among others and is included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the New Museum (New York), and the Progressive Art Collection (Cleveland, OH).
Hadley Holliday
Warp and Weft
February 25 – April 7, 2012
Taylor De Cordoba is proud to present Warp and Weft, a series of abstract paintings by Los Angeles-based artist Hadley Holliday. The exhibition will run from February 25 – April 7, 2012, with an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, February 25 from 6 – 8PM.
For Holliday’s first exhibition at Taylor De Cordoba, the artist debuts a new series of acrylic paintings wherein she explores ideas of space and depth while referencing traditional craft. In striking shades of blue, Holliday creates psychedelic patterns of interlocking circles, which form arched, expansive spaces. The circles mimic overlapping lenses, with each section projecting a different depth of field and creating its own space within the whole. The effect of the pattern is dizzying but also serene, as the varying shades of blue evoke images of the infinite (both the sublime night sky and the mysterious yet inviting sea). Holliday references the history of abstract painting with a fluid style, seemingly pouring colors over the white of the canvas into lines, shapes and patterns. Here, the canvas’ negative space is as important as the color, which rather than staining the canvas, forms a thin film on the surface.
The show’s title, Warp and Weft is an allusion to the weaving, the ancient craft of making fabric by “interweaving” material into a series of right angles. In these paintings, the circles literally weave together into a pattern of geometric shapes. While creating this body of work, Holliday considered the mythology of weaving and the way in which the terminology has become associated with lofty themes of creation and change – spinning the thread of time, the fabric of the universe and yarn as synonym for a tall tale. By using one powerful color and repeating the simple circular shape, Holliday weaves a unique narrative, which invites the viewer into a meditative experience, not unlike the one Holliday enters during the process of painting.
Hadley Holliday lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She received her MFA from CalArts in 2004 and has exhibited at numerous galleries including Sam Lee Gallery (Los Angeles) and Solway Jones (Los Angeles). Reviews of her exhibitions have appeared in ArtWeek, The Los Angeles Times and Art LTD, among others.
Danielle Mourning: Ordinary Time
January 7 – February 11, 2012
PRESS RELEASE : For Immediate Release
Taylor De Cordoba is proud to present Ordinary Time, new photographs by San Francisco- based artist Danielle Nelson Mourning. The exhibition will run from January 7 – February 11, 2012, with an opening reception for the artist on Saturday, January 7 from 6 – 8PM.
For Mourningʼs second solo exhibition at Taylor De Cordoba, she continues her exploration of self- portraiture through photography and mixed media photographic paintings. In previous bodies of work, the artist represented her family history by assuming the roles of her ancestors from Mississippi, New York and Ireland (she literally slipped in and out of their homes, attire and settings to create this cinematic images). Mourning turned the lens on herself and set out to discover her own identity through the assumed identities of those who came before her. With Ordinary Time, the costumes are gone, as are the far-away locales. Rather, the artist is deeply invested in the present moment and capturing her sense of time and place on film. The resulting series of self-portraits is strikingly raw, honest and filled with intensity.
Providing context to the portraits are atmospheric photographs of landscapes and abstracted objects, which connect to the artistʼs Northern California upbringing – a hazy shot of the sun setting in Bolinas, a Native American Miwok tepee at sunrise in West Marin and a shattered mirror photographed from her Grandmother’s house are among the subjects Mourning photographs.. And while this new work is clearly a meditation on the present, the past continues to haunt Mourningʼs process. In the words of the artist, “This moment is an unveiling of the present yet there is always the past walking with me.”
The show is dedicated to the artistʼs grandmother, Ruth Catherine Nelson.